Guatemala III. Antigua & The Fuego Volcano Hike

Antigua was the one stop in my 25-day Guatemala itinerary that I visited twice for a total of six nights. It was my gateway to the country coming from El Salvador, and then I returned following visits to Xela and Lake Atitlan. Some travelers find Antigua to be too touristy, but I found it to be a perfect base from which to explore nearby attractions. Furthermore the colonial architecture is some of the best preserved in Central America, and the town is uniquely set in a valley surrounded by volcanos.

When I first arrived from El Salvador on an early morning in mid-December I plopped myself down at a open-air cafe on the square, had an overpriced breakfast, and basked in the liveliness of the street out front. In that moment I felt like I could’ve been in a Mexican zocalo (central square) – with the central park, a large cathedral, and some stately buildings surrounding everything.

When I was growing up, the church I went to had a painting of Antigua’s famous Arco de Santa Catalina with the Agua volcano towering in the background. For years into my early adulthood I must have starred at that painting, subconsciously yearning to go there before I had ever learned to love travel. During my visit I found the lighting and hoards of tourists didn’t allow me to capture the photo from the volcano side as the paintings do, but the image of the arch and volcano together is a wonderful juxtaposition of the colonial architecture and the region’s geological beauty.

During my first visit to Antigua I decided to do the Pacaya volcano hiking tour. This volcano cannot be seen from Antigua, as it is located on the opposite side of the Agua volcano. Personally, I found this tour to be a bit of false advertising. Flyers display flowing lava and mention “marshmallow roasting” over the fumes – but both are laughable seeing as Pacaya isn’t regularly erupting (unlike the Fuego volcano) and the marshmallows only managed to warm slightly. But with all that aside, I treated this as a good warmup for the other volcano hikes that I’d do.

Back in town, I found Antigua to be such a comfortable place to spend some quality time. It’s funny, because Guatemala was otherwise a very exhausting experience. For whatever reason I stayed in a few different hostels across my two visits to Antigua – but given how nice they were, I wish I could’ve sampled them all! Everywhere you went in town you’d see restaurants or accommodations with the most inviting of courtyards, tempting you to wander inside. I didn’t actually get anything from the Starbucks in town, but their ultra-instagramable courtyard looked amazing from afar.

Being Guatemala’s busiest tourist town there was no shortage of restaurants to try. During my stay I had Salvadoran pupusas, Mexican, Mediterranean-Indian fusion, vegetarian, and the traditional breakfasts of eggs and beans. In this part of Central America coffee is most often included with breakfast. This helped me zap my cravings for fancier coffee elsewhere. And as a budget traveler I was happy to find a lot of budget options on food, with many restaurants serving considerable meals between $3 – $8. A visit to the Antigua local market could yield even cheaper finds, along with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Ok, it’s time to talk about the most epic activity to do while in Antigua – the Fuego & Acatenango Volcano hike. Unlike the Pacaya volcano hike I found the Fuego/Acatenango tour to be 100% worth the effort, and it was easily the most unique thing I experienced in Central America. As I mentioned earlier, the Fuego volcano is constantly active, with eruptions happening every 15-20 minutes. I had seen it erupt from numerous other places in Guatemala, and so it was particularly great to do as a final hike during my time in the Guatemalan highlands.

This tour will leave you breathless in multiple ways. It was the most tiring and difficult hike of my trip, and that’s saying something considering I was fully acclimated and had already done several other volcano hikes. The overnight camping tour can be booked for between $55-60 USD, and is easy to organize through your accommodation. The base camp is located on the Acatenango volcano, which sits directly alongside of Fuego. The hike was very busy … it felt as if every backpacker in Guatemala could’ve been there. The way it works is the tour guides bring you up in the morning as the previous day’s hikers make their way down, so the trail is quite often congested … not to mention steep and slippery.

Interestingly I wound up in a tour group mostly comprised of French speakers, so with the language barrier it wasn’t the most social hike. By mid-afternoon we arrived at our base camp, where we had the option to either hike up a portion of the actual Fuego volcano for sunset, or stay at base camp for the evening. It was another $20 to join the guides up to Fuego, and I’d say it was mostly worth it. The sunset views from the side of Fuego were best to photograph the row of highland volcanos to the west. The downside to this vantage point was that it was overwhelmingly windy, which wasn’t the case at base camp. I hoped to see a large eruption in the time before we headed back to base, but sadly the volcano was a bit timid.

What Fuego failed to deliver for sunset it surely made up for after dark. Before bed I went into the woods to brush my teeth and as I stood there Fuego let out the most incredible eruption – I’d surely never thought I’d be doing something as mundane as brushing my teeth while watching a volcano erupt! At 4:00 AM the guides woke everyone up to hike to the summit of Acatenango for sunrise. However I had decided ahead of time to stay behind, set up my tripod, and capture as many long exposure shots as I could.

There are quite a few reasons why this was a great decision for me as a photographer. Firstly, everyone else hiked nearly the entire time up until sunrise – I couldn’t have set up my camera in time while hiking. Secondly – instead of exhausting myself further I just got to sit there relaxed, wrapped in a warm blanket, and alone in my own thoughts. I had hiked so much the day prior, and we still had our descent ahead … so it was lovely to just chill and take it all in, and it yielded one of the more memorable photos I’ve taken in the past year.

The day after the tour I was going to head to the village of Cobán in central Guatemala, but I decided to skip it and stay one extra night in Antigua. Having done two volcano tours here I found it necessary to give myself an extra full day to vibe out amongst the cobblestoned streets. On my last morning I got up early and grabbed a coffee before taking a long walk through the outer edges of town while listening to some classical music (Dvorak to be specific).

I had been wanting to buy one of the acrylic paintings that are sold literally everywhere of the famous arch, but late that afternoon I happened upon a street artist selling a unique and recently finished watercolor painting. The acrylic paintings from the artisan markets are nice, but they appear somewhat mass-produced. In contrast, this watercolor stood out and made for a great souvenir. It was cool to think that a painting had inspired me to come to Antigua, and now I was leaving with a painting of my own.